Majority of new Australian citizens are Indian migrants

As per official data released recently, India emerges to claim the top spot as the biggest source country for new Australian citizens in 2019-20.

In a Media Release  – July 25, 2020 – the Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs Alan Tudge announced that “more than 200,000 people have pledged their allegiance to Australia and become new citizens in the past 12 months”.

In the 2019-20 financial year, Australian citizenship was conferred to a total of 204,817 people. Of these, 38,209 were from India, making Indian migrants the biggest source for new Australian citizens in the past year.

This is the “highest number on record” of Australian citizenship being granted within 12 months. The statistics for the new Australian citizens for 2019-20 financial year registers a 60% increase on the data of the previous financial year.

The Australian government has been holding online citizenship ceremonies in place of in-person ceremonies due to COVID-19 related restrictions. Till date, over 60,000 have been conferred their Australian citizenship through online ceremonies.

As per the Media Release, small in-person citizenship ceremonies have been resumed from June 3. However, online ceremonies will be continuing for the foreseeable future for councils that are not able to host in-person ceremonies in a COVID-19 safe manner.

In line with the health advice surrounding COVID-19, the Department of Home Affairs has resumed citizenship interviews and testing. While a small number of appointments had begun in Sydney and Perth, more are to be rolled out in other locations as soon as possible.

Top 10 nationalities that got Australian citizenship in 2019-20 financial year

Country of Nationality	Total number of people who got citizenship
India	38,209
UK	25,011
China	14,764
Philippines	12,838
Pakistan	8,821
Vietnam	6,804
Sri Lanka	6,195
South Africa	5,438
New Zealand	5,367
Afghanistan	5,102
Other	76,268
TOTAL	204,817

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